“Well, that remains to be proved. You have not been much use in the world so far; but I think it is time your days of idling came to an end. Perhaps this emergency will give you your chance. Let us see during these next weeks the stuff of which you are made. Perhaps you will be able to make up for the purposelessness and shortcomings of the past year.”
His father looked straight at him then, and Cyril cowered as under a blow. Then Mr. Tom rose and walked out of the room, followed by North, whilst Cyril turned anxiously to his mother and exclaimed—
“What can he mean by that?”
But the mother did not know. Her husband had said nothing to her that could explain his rather mysterious words. Had Cyril heard what passed between father and son in the study he would have some reason to tremble in earnest.
“Have you discovered anything fresh, sir?” asked North, as they stood by the hearth.
“Yes; the report of the detective came in during your absence this morning. Every note has at last been traced, and each one to Cyril. He passed one through young Lawrence, as you found out some time ago; another was cashed in London some time later; the third was a long while in being traced, but it was paid at last by a small cigar dealer in Romford. And it was elicited upon close inquiry that it had been presented by a man exactly answering to the description of Cyril, who had made a rather considerable purchase there, and had given the note in payment. Some of the boxes with this man’s stamp on them have been found in our rubbish bin. The case is complete in my estimation.”
“And what are you going to do?”
“Give him a chance to rouse himself from his selfish apathy during these next weeks, and to win for himself something of a good name. Of course, when Oscar recovers, the whole truth must be told. Meantime it will rest between you and me; and we will see if there is not still something behind that lazy, self-seeking exterior. I fear we have spoiled Cyril, and that this is the outcome. But some men will rise to an emergency, who otherwise drift along with the current all too easily.”
It was the father’s hope that the crisis they feared in the town would stir up Cyril to exertions and self-sacrifice, which would do something to obliterate the bitter remembrances of the past. Perhaps Mr. Tom forgot to bear in mind that whilst repentance for past sins may be a stepping-stone to better things, a concealed and unrepented act of wickedness is like a millstone about the neck, dragging the soul downwards, and raising a barrier between it and those promptings of the Spirit whereby alone men can rise to true nobility and self-forgetfulness.
And now a time of stress and keen anxiety arose within the little town of Isingford. The epidemic was restricted to a certain area, and was easily traced to the defective drainage of that part of the town; but its victims were very many within that area; and there were several isolated cases, like Oscar’s, which, however, were generally traced to poison germs inhaled in the infested locality.